Adventures of a Saturday morn

24C today! It was a scorching HOT 28C yesterday, though personally I can't tell the difference, lol. Hot is hot, be it 24C or 28C with the sun beating down on you. Tomorrow and up until Thursday is predicted to be just as nice, although we all know how those Alberta weather reports are...so who knows, maybe it'll snow tomorrow! Nearly melted today until I discovered the nearest Booster Juice...aah. As promised, here are some photos...though now that I am looking at them, they don't really do our little Mustachio much justice. He's a great looking little critter and is well muscled. Those excellent bloodlines are really coming out. Like I said though, these photos really do not do him justice. I tried to snap them quickly before my threatening-to-die camera gave up its last ghost on me and did not really set him up all that well or anything. Oh well. More photos to come of the others I am working with over June.

Twist did excellenté today! As usual, we tacked up and played our 7 games - for which he was pretty quiet and far less reactive than yesterday. Oh yea, and I forgot to mention, yesterday he trotted up to me!! Hey, it seems I become less velocoraptor-ish in appearance with each passing day. Whaddaya know. Today he walked up to me as well - from in a field with his buddies. Of course it helps that all his (4) pony buddies come running to see me as well (lol), but he still wouldn't walk or run up to me on previous occasions (or even stand for me at first!) despite his buddies milling about me. Improvement in all areas! After running through our games quickly I mounted up, three times each side, third time swinging my leg over. This time he allowed me near the stirrups almost no problemo, and he stood quiet as usual (on a loose rein) for me to mount up. A truck door slamming nearby scared him though and lit him into a few bucks, but nothing special and relatively minor compared to yesterday's Grated Coconut performance. I calmly talked him down until he was standing still again. He did a bit of worried sidepass and turns on the hind for me - he wasn't sure what to do initially but knew he wanted to keep those feet of his moving. I played a bit with his head via my reins - he is quite sensitive and soft (beneath that tension anyways). We got in quite a bit of movement and even a little forward movement and a half decent lap of the pen in either direction. Progress! His being as slow to progress as he is (due to his fearfulness and lack of trust), I had only anticipated him being comfortable with me on his back by the end of this week, no walking about, so being where he's at he is actually further along than I had anticipated by this time. His owner watched our under-saddle part a bit as well and pointed out that Twist seems very willing. He's right, he is very willing, he's just also very scared. So time, calm handling, etc will all help make him a fantastic riding partner ;)